Game 70: Sixers vs Pacers

[HardenGoat]

We are now officially the second seed!!!

[NYSixersFan]

Joel played 68 games last year and got votes. If he finishes out this year... He'll have 69.

All the other top guys have missed games, so it won't matter if he plays 65-67 games

[eyeatoma]

My only concern is that they're on fire a month too early. Otherwise impressive stretch

Post all star is when you want it to start clicking.


I just wish that there was one more good 4 or 5-day stretch where Joel could get some rest. He can't miss any more games if he wants to win the MVP. This is precisely why I wish he wouldn't have even gone for it this year. Similar situation to last season and he didn't even win it. He got 1 good rest after the all star break. Probably won't get another until after regular season.

It's not just the games against quality opponents that makes this March and April stretch ridiculous by the league schedule makers for Philly. It's the back to backs, road games, and lack of rest in between that makes it ridiculous. I don't think they have another stretch of two days in between games even

Agreed with you here, unfortunate about the schedule. This is his best chance to win MVP so he has to go for it. More importantly the games have consequence as we still have a "shot" at the 1 seed, which would be huge. Adam Aaronson says we should play him higher minutes against the Celtics/Bucks, so that it's basically playoff rotation, raising our chance of getting a win.

Read on Twitter

[76ciology]

We are now officially the second seed!!!

[76ciology]

My only concern is that they're on fire a month too early. Otherwise impressive stretch

Post all star is when you want it to start clicking.


I just wish that there was one more good 4 or 5-day stretch where Joel could get some rest. He can't miss any more games if he wants to win the MVP. This is precisely why I wish he wouldn't have even gone for it this year. Similar situation to last season and he didn't even win it. He got 1 good rest after the all star break. Probably won't get another until after regular season.

It's not just the games against quality opponents that makes this March and April stretch ridiculous by the league schedule makers for Philly. It's the back to backs, road games, and lack of rest in between that makes it ridiculous. I don't think they have another stretch of two days in between games even

Agreed with you here, unfortunate about the schedule. This is his best chance to win MVP so he has to go for it. More importantly the games have consequence as we still have a "shot" at the 1 seed, which would be huge. Adam Aaronson says we should play him higher minutes against the Celtics/Bucks, so that it's basically playoff rotation, raising our chance of getting a win.

Read on Twitter

Our style of play is also not physically taxing. So jo can get his numbers without much effort.

At this point i wish nothing but to end the season with a healthy squad.

[M2J]

Post all star is when you want it to start clicking.


I just wish that there was one more good 4 or 5-day stretch where Joel could get some rest. He can't miss any more games if he wants to win the MVP. This is precisely why I wish he wouldn't have even gone for it this year. Similar situation to last season and he didn't even win it. He got 1 good rest after the all star break. Probably won't get another until after regular season.

It's not just the games against quality opponents that makes this March and April stretch ridiculous by the league schedule makers for Philly. It's the back to backs, road games, and lack of rest in between that makes it ridiculous. I don't think they have another stretch of two days in between games even

Agreed with you here, unfortunate about the schedule. This is his best chance to win MVP so he has to go for it. More importantly the games have consequence as we still have a "shot" at the 1 seed, which would be huge. Adam Aaronson says we should play him higher minutes against the Celtics/Bucks, so that it's basically playoff rotation, raising our chance of getting a win.

Read on Twitter

Our style of play is also not physically taxing. So jo can get his numbers without much effort.

At this point i wish nothing but to end the season with a healthy squad.

It's not overly physically taxing, but again if you're trying to secure top seed you have to win... To win you have to do it with this ridiculous schedule against quality opponents, back to backs, with a West Coast road trip included.

It's not all together that bad as he has had rest days throughout the year. They may even throw 1 more in, and I know they're not practicing.

I think Joel's constant exaggerations about his injuries just makes you feel bad for him.

[Sixercise]

I think Joel's constant exaggerations about his injuries just makes you feel bad for him.

In the past, yes. He's been straight-up unlucky throughout his career in this regard. However, as a pro, he's got to figure out how to play within control (as it's been well-documented about his past risky plays that got him in trouble). And thankfully, he's been doing that the past 3 seasons....

[ExplosionsInDaSky]

Jo has played more under control this year than I've ever seen. It's been a gradual but also slow transition, but he's doing it. James Harden I think has also helped him in that regard. You watch Harden, he's never ever out of control, he doesn't put himself in situations to potentially get hurt and I think that has rubbed off on Embiid.
I too think home court would be huge for us this year. We also don't want Doc running our guys into the dirt either, but it really leaves us no choice. Maybe rest Embiid a game or two down the stretch run, but we need to win these games.

[HotelVitale]

Good that we're taking care of the easy ones now cuz man the last couple weeks of the season is still brutal. People mentioned it in this thread but out of the 12 games left we could very easily lose 7 of them:
-At GSW
-At PHX
-At DEN
-At MIL
-BOS
-MIA
-DAL

Plus there are a couple of loseable games with ATL and BKN to close the season. Tough road.

[M2J]

Good that we're taking care of the easy ones now cuz man the last couple weeks of the season is still brutal. People mentioned it in this thread but out of the 12 games left we could very easily lose 7 of them:
-At GSW
-At PHX
-At DEN
-At MIL
-BOS
-MIA
-DAL

Plus there are a couple of loseable games with ATL and BKN to close the season. Tough road.

The only one of those teams that are playing well is Milwaukee. I said it when the fact that 76ers had such a tough schedule came out. Seeing those teams could focus the 76ers and bring out the best of them, teams will be resting players and have real injuries, and you never know how well all these teams will be playing at the time. You see teams streak through tough stretches all the time. The teams aren't the issue, it's the frequency. I don't expect them to win them all, but still ...

[HotelVitale]

Good that we're taking care of the easy ones now cuz man the last couple weeks of the season is still brutal. People mentioned it in this thread but out of the 12 games left we could very easily lose 7 of them:
-At GSW
-At PHX
-At DEN
-At MIL
-BOS
-MIA
-DAL

Plus there are a couple of loseable games with ATL and BKN to close the season. Tough road.

The only one of those teams that are playing well is Milwaukee. I said it when the fact that 76ers had such a tough schedule came out. Seeing those teams could focus the 76ers and bring out the best of them, teams will be resting players and have real injuries, and you never know how well all these teams will be playing at the time. You see teams streak through tough stretches all the time. The teams aren't the issue, it's the frequency. I don't expect them to win them all, but still ...

We’re likely to drop some of them, that was my point. It’s great that these days we can beat bad teams even when we shoot poorly or execute badly and we can still beat decent teams when we play meh, but we’ll lose some of these upcoming games if we’re not playing quite well. And it’s a lot to expect we’ll play quite well for 10 games straight (many on the road).